Trinity Broadcasting Settles Male Sexual Harassment Suit

Anti-gay Trinity Broadcasting has settled a sexual harassment suit brought by a gay male employee against Pastor Paul Crouch, Jr., the son of the network's founder and chairman, Paul Crouch. According to the employee, Crouch Jr. emailed him transsexual porn and told employees that he had a "mangina."

Brian Dugger sued Trinity last March, claiming he was harassed and discriminated against by employees of the world’s largest Christian broadcasting empire. Paul Crouch Jr. allegedly taunted Dugger with pornography, said TBN was no place for fairies and declared that ‘Brian has a man-gina!’ ” In court paperwork, Crouch said those things never happened. Dugger began working as a broadcast engineer for Trinity in Nashville in 1993, and grew “exceedingly close” to Paul Crouch Jr.’s daddy, Paul Crouch, the suit said. When TBN headquarters moved to Southern California, the senior Crouch insisted that Dugger come, too; but once here, the senior Crouch became less involved with the station, while wife Jan and son Paul Crouch Jr. took the reins. That’s when things began to get difficult for Dugger, the suit said. Soon after his transfer to Tustin in 2001, Dugger was told not to dress so gay or to wear jewelry, to act more straight and to pay attention to girls, it said. “Brian has a man-gina!” Paul Crouch Jr. allegedly taunted Dugger (in front of a live video camera and a crowd of TBN workers). The junior Crouch (that’s him at right) also sent Dugger explicit pictures of genitalia – male, female and transsexual – as well as explicit images of copulating couples and other pornography, the suit said.

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but court filings show the suit asked for over $2.5M in punitive damages and lost wages, plus statutory damages. In 1994 the network paid a settlement of $425,000 to a man who claimed that he was forced have sex with Paul Crouch, Sr. in order to keep his job. (That might explain why today's complainant "grew exceedingly close" to Crouch, Sr.)